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Quality USB A/D devices

G

Goat Rodeo Cowboy

Those of us who have home based studios for doing voice-over work sometimes see this as The Best of Time and yet The Worst of Times when it comes to hardware.

The trend is away from the old typical sound-care inside-the-computer box. External converters that plug into a USB port are convenient. But the selection and quality are a bit limited.

Then I thought about the companies that specialized in making really "cast iron" sound cards to go in automation machines. Maybe they make some external devices these days.

On the Internet I found the RME Babyface and the Digigram UAX220. Anyone have first-hand experience with these devices? Are there others out there?

Those of us using things like the PreSonus 22VSL or the Focusrite 2i2 find times when maybe we are asking too much from these rather affordable devices. What are we overlooking?
 
Thanks for the references. I can see where these two devices can really fit well into the total collection of a radio station and some stand alone voice over studios.

For folks doing voice tracking and voice over and narration in a stand alone studio, there is also interest in devices that will accept mic level inputs. That does away with any noise or distortion that might arise from interfacing the mic pre-amp with devices like the two you referenced.

Everyone has their own prejudices in this area. Some folks want/need a great stand-alone preamp with maybe some compression, gating or EQ built in. Or maybe a great pre-amp driving a great processor and then into the conversion to digital. Other folks (and I fit this camp) just want a quality chain that goes from the mic plug to the software with as few connections/interfaces as possible, and will depend on software for any audio adjustments.

Thanks for the response. I am aware of the Henry line of products, but Dixon is new to me.
 
Yes, moving away from internal cards is a good thing for multiple reasons. The first reason is to get out of the electrical interference Zone inside the computer case. I must point out though that in recent years I have had good performance both from an M-Audio Audiophile internal card, and even the sound card device on the motherboard of many computers. (Not good enough to want to use them for voice-over however.

The other good reason for external is that technology keeps changing and when you upgrade computers, your special high-dollar professional grade internal sound card may not have an available space in the new upgrade machine.

I something that is not all that common among users with "good" cards. Yes, I do v-o style and quality recordings in my studio with my main machine. But there are occasions when I will grab a mic or two and a portable recorder and go on site for a town hall meeting, or as I once did: record a pipe-organ concert. I like an external sound-device that can plug into the USB of my main machine, or when on the road, plug into my laptop or net-book.

I hear a lot of good reports on the Apogee devices. But (at least up until now) I think they are only useable with MACs are they not? I am a hopeless addict to all the problems and all the few benefits of using Windows.

I read the specs on the Henry device, the RME and the Digigram and found one obstacle for me. (I think this may have also been true for the Dixon. None of them indicate they will operate above 48,000 hertz sample rate. Since they are all highly tied to the broadcast industry, they had made a choice that 44.1 or 48 at 24 is totally adequate for anything a broadcaster is going to do... and maybe even over-kill.

For weddings, the pipe-organ event and some other strange events I record, I like capturing the original at 96k and if possible, 32-bit. I know. I've heard all the logic. It seem useless. It probably gains me nothing. But once in a great while......... well, you know. Sure, my finished product may be 44.1 or even mp3... but I don't want to throw anything away until I have squeezed all the juice out of the orange that is available.
 
Good ol Internal sound cards still seem to be the 'normal' for broadcast automation systems -- I have yet to see a multi channel external box -- in fact I think we'll see some IP Audio solutions (such AXIA's Livewire, Wheatstone's wheatnet) be used by a broadcaster in their studio builds before we see someone come up with a multi channel external USB/Firewire type interface for automation.
 
Telosian said:
Oh snap, you're right. I'm running on Macs these days.

http://www.apogeedigital.com/knowledgebase/quartet/can-quartet-be-used-with-a-windows-pc-or-linux/

Let us know what you decide Cowboy.
Click to expand...

I think the immediate pressure to do something is off of me.... at least for now. I do voice work from a studio in my home. Many of us who do this kind of thing have some broadcasting background so we come to sites like this and pick the brains of people who are working in station-based production facilities. "What do YOU folks know that maybe I should know."

From what I can learn, many home studios run on the thin edge when it comes to background noise and electronic noise in our recordings. I have done two things to "fatten the edge" in my case. A change of mic improved by "signal-to-noise" by 9 dB. Adding a Cloudlifter CL1 has given me another 9 to 15 dB so I will survive. But in my testing I realized my PreSonus device that serves as a preamp and analog-to-digital device is now my weakest link. There are a number of pretty decent devices in the $150 to $200 range that seem to do a comparable job. So this thread began as an effort to find out: If I want to move out of the Ford/Chevy/Toyota/Nissan level audio device and move to something comparable to a Lexus/Cadillac/BMW device, what would be it's price and what would be it's name.

I'm not sure if the answer would be an $800 device or a $4,000 device. The topic does make for a good conversation starter.
 
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